Modern vehicles include engine control units to electronically control series of actuators with of the internal combustion engine within the vehicle. The engine control unit reads values from multiple sensors of the vehicle and interprets the data using multidimensional performance maps and look up tables stored in a profile to determine performance settings that will be used to control the actuators and the performance of the engine. The electronic control unit can control air-fuel mixtures, ignition timing, and the idle speed of the engine.
A problem with modern engine control units is that they cannot be updated while the vehicle is being operated and do not provide simple access to high idle and high performance modes during vehicle operation.